Helen Grime: Night Songs Lynsey Marsh clarinet Hallé Soloists ~ Hallé Orchestra Jamie Phillips conductor ~ Sir Mark Elder conductor NMC D199 • Celebrating 25 years of NMC Recordings. Discover — Connect — Challenge — Inspire • Debut Discs is a 4-year series in collaboration with BA (Hons) Graphic Design students at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design who have designed the cover artwork for the series. • Debut Discs has the ambassadorial support of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. • 6 releases in the series feature the composers Huw Watkins, Dai Fujikura, Sam Hayden, Richard Causton, Joseph Phibbs and Helen Grime, still to come this year are Charlotte Bray and Ben Foskett. Helen Grime's Debut Disc contrasts orchestral works - including her first Hallé commission,the nocturne Near Midnight (2013) - with smaller-scale pieces featuring the Hallé Soloists. The earliest work here, Virga, is a densely-packed miniature, taking its title from precipitation which evaporates before it reaches the ground; its textures are dominated by falling cascades of woodwind droplets.   Night Songs was commissioned for the 2012 BBC Proms and premiered by the BBC SO and Oliver Knussen. Other works include Into the faded air - a string sextet titled after a line from T.S.Eliot’s Four Quartets - the Clarinet Concerto, featuring Hallé principal lLynsey Marsh, and Everyone Sang - inspired by Siegfried Sassoon.   1. Virga 6'45"       Into the faded air:   2. Con moto 1'37"   3. Lento - 2'44"   4. Agitato - 2'19"   5. Grave 2'39"       Clarinet Concerto:   6. I With Vigour 6'11"   7. II Free and energetic 4'27"   8. III Calmo 5'30"       A Cold Spring:   9. I [crotchet = 76] 2'36" 10. II Calmo - 4'28" 11. III Tumultuous 2'59" 12. Everyone Sang 10'15" 13. Night Songs 5'52" 14. Near Midnight 11'36" NMC Recordings are distributed in Australia by Rockian Trading, P.O.Box 44, Briar Hill, Vic, 3088, Australia Telephone (03) 9432 4149 ~ Facsimile (03) 9444 6879